Classical Music

This is the best of me, wrote Edward Elgar after the final bar of his "Dream of Gerontius". First performed in 1900, the work has long been one of the standard works of great oratorio choruses in Grea...

From a music-historical point of view, Anton Diabelli belongs to a middle group of Biedermeier composers who can be assigned neither to the Classical nor to the Romantic period. Although Diabelli want...

With its magnificent, almost operatic music, the Passion oratorio "Christus am Ölberge" is a different Passion oratorio that is definitely worth hearing and experiencing - and is undoubtedly unique in...

Spoken during his final hours, the “seven words” have been taken as a profound insight into Jesus‘s final suffering on the cross. These words, or rather statements, have been set by numerous composers...

With a musically convincing and in many respects highly original interpretation of the liturgical text, Herzogenberg's mass represents a final highlight in the late Romantic repertoire of the "Missa s...

Józef Swider, a native of Poland, has written more than 250 compositions for choirs, which enjoy great popularity. Today he is considered the most frequently performed Polish composer. His richly orch...

The Carus program on Dresden court music continues with the first edition of one of the great masses (No. 9, D major) by Johann David Heinichen, the most important musical representative of the Saxon...

Giacomo Carissimi, the first grand master of the oratorio and author of numerous concertante motets and Italian bel canto solo cantatas, also composed several masses. The Missa concertata in C for 2 t...

Amilcare Ponchielli (1834-1886) is best known today as an opera composer and as the composition teacher of Giacomo Puccini and Pietro Mascagni. His greatest success came in 1876 at La Scala in Milan w...

Mozart and Haydn greatly appreciated the church music of their friend and Viennese court conductor Joseph Eybler. The Missa Sancti Alberti with its lyrical, pastoral tone stands in contrast to his mas...

Bruckner’s mighty Mass in F minor is one of his most significant creations and one of the great 19th-century choral works. The composer uniquely succeeds in exploring faith through the lens of music....

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, transcriptions of large (choral) symphonic works for two pianos were extremely popular, as they enabled a large audience to get to know classical compositions in...

Giuseppe Verdi's Te Deum for double choir and large orchestra is the most frequently performed part of his Quattro pezzi sacri and his penultimate work, composed in 1895/1896. Verdi dealt intensively...

Bobbi Fischer's "Magnificat" builds a musical bridge between Europe and South America. His setting of Mary's song of praise from the Gospel of Luke draws on the abundance of Afro-Caribbean rhythms. We...

The Stabat Mater is Giuseppe Verdi's last work. The composer completed it in 1897 at the age of 84. A year later, the Stabat Mater appeared in print together with the slightly older Te Deum as part of...

The Requiem in F minor op. 146 is one of Franz Lachner's most important works. The composer, who lived in Vienna for a long time, developed into a "classicist romantic" there, merging classical form,...

Among Verdi's numerous compositions, the Messa da Requiem remains unique as a work of sacred music. It was composed as a musical memorial to the Italian national poet Alessandro Manzoni, whom Verdi de...

The Berlin choirmaster and music teacher Michael Betzner-Brandt is known as a particularly creative mind in the choral scene - for example through his "I can't sing" choirs. In order to be able to sin...

Gabriel Fauré's Requiem is the key work among the French master's sacred compositions. The work was already a success with the public during the composer's lifetime and remains so to this day. Due to...

Dvorák's great "Requiem" was commissioned for the renowned music festival in Birmingham. Since its premiere there under the composer's direction in 1891, it has enjoyed great popularity. It is based o...

Dvorák's great "Requiem" was commissioned for the renowned music festival in Birmingham. Since its premiere there under the composer's direction in 1891, it has enjoyed great popularity. It is based o...

„Der geistlichen Musik die Kraft zuzuwenden, bleibt ja wohl das höchste Ziel des Künstlers“, schreibt Robert Schumann im Januar 1851 - und das, obwohl er bis dato kaum als Komponist geistlicher Musik...

Puccini's first known work of church music was composed during his school days at the "Istituto Pacini" in Lucca and was premiered there in 1877; he chose a Latin hymn to the patron saint of Lucca as...

Monteverdi's "Vespers of Mary" has found its way into today's musical practice like hardly any other work of the 17th century. However, the "Vespers of Mary" also presents us with many puzzles. The so...

Anyone who has Bruckner's symphonies and well-known great masses in their ears will be amazed when they hear his "Missa solemnis" from 1854: can the tradition of Viennese Classicism still be so clearl...